Algebra Equations to Budget a School Party

Having learned the basics of making and solving equations, students use their knowledge to budget for an imaginary school event. Students can follow up with budgeting for a real event or fundraiser.

Learning Objective(s)

Translate real life situations into word problems.

Translate word problems into algebraic expressions and equations.

Apply algebra principles to everyday problem solving.

Assessment Type

This middle through high school appropriate summative project from NROC's Algebra 1--An Open Course, Unit 2 Team Project: Students Rule can act as a capstone assessment in which students showcase their skills by presenting results from their algebraic comparison of different pricing plans for a school event. Alternately, the problems from the project can be used as a standalone single class assignment.

AssignmentDetails

Before beginning this with your class, take the time to read through "Team Project: Students Rule" completely.You’ll find three interesting class party budgeting problems followed by a larger project based on presenting findings. Decide if you want to do this as a small, single class exercise (just doing and discussing the three word problems), or do you want to follow through with a full project. If you’re just doing the problems, you can paste them into a separate document from the overall project and print them as a worksheet that omits mention of the larger project. Otherwise, you’ll want to print the whole project prompt, one copy for each group.

10 min– Have your students write to this prompt, “If you had $200 to throw you and ten of your friends a party, what would you do? How about if you had $2000 and threw a party for the school?” Have fun talking about options, ideas, and possibilities. While you do so, find ways to turn the ideas into equations and record these on the board.

10 min—Today’s goal is to use algebra equations to answer real life questions about budgeting. Break students into small groups and hand out the instructions and three questions from the project. Students will record their answers individually even though they are working in a group. Expect to help them pretty heavily with the first problem, but do give them as much of an opportunity as possible to solve it on their own. I recommend giving them five minutes to read the problem to each other in their groups, then check in with them to see if they’ve come up with equations to represent the budget problem. If not, help them break it down into key points. Once equations are built that make sense, give them five more minutes to solve the equations they’ve come up with, and then again compare answers and discuss results.

20 min (10 min per problem) – Students should now complete problems 2 and 3 in small groups while you circulate and help if needed. If a group finishes early, either check their answer yourself or have them check their answer against the results of another group when it finishes. If a group is completely stuck, but you’re already helping a group, you can invite the stuck group to send out one of its members as a spy to see what a more successful group has come up with. Groups that finish early (and correctly) should be invited to graph their cost equations from one of the problems on a white board or poster for others to see. Require correct axis labeling (recommend that the cost goes on the y axis, the variable appropriate for each problem on the x axis) and clarity as to which equation goes with which line.

10 min—When all groups are finished, check that all have reached the same conclusions as to which vendors would be best to choose based on the budget numbers given. Discuss any discrepancies. Extend the discussion by referring to the graphs made by the groups that finished early. Have the students explain to you under what circumstances it would make sense to choose another vendor and justify it based on the graph. Ask them if to identify the point of intersection of the two equations from their problem. Can they tell you the meaning of that point? (Its where the cost and benefit would be the same regardless of which vendor was chosen.) This leads nicely into a discussion of systems of equations.

5 min—Working individually students should summarize the results of the day in their own words. They can add this to the end of the page on which they solved their problems. I sometimes call these “Dear Me,” notes, as the goal here is for the students to take note of any realizations that they’ve had during class.

Instructor Notes

If you’re working with a middle school class or lower level high school class, having them create presentations as described in the NROC project would be great.If your class has access to a computer lab completing the presentations should be do-able in about two more class sessions. I would ungroup the students for this part of the assignment, however, so each could learn the editing skills needed to make the presentation. A rubric is provided as part of the project.

To extend this, have the students create a budget and use their algebra to compare options for a real life situation. Competing cell phone contracts can be good for this. Or, of course, they could really research and plan a school party.

If you have a class interested in service learning, this would be a great introductory project for a charity fundraiser. Student groups could discuss and research a local need and create competing proposals for a fundraising event to meet that need. When all projects are presented, the class could vote on one project to actually attempt to bring to fruition.

If you know you have a student who has really been struggling with group work or making algebra equations in general, you can have that student go online and use the NROC tutor simulation “Building a Swimming Pool” which is also part of Unit 2 and covers turning a real life situation into an equation.

Rubric

A rubric for the project itself is provided in the NROC assignment description.

Alternately, if using a 10 point scale for grading only the word problems and group work in class:

5pts -- Time on task. Students stayed engaged and on topic working to solve the problems. All students in the group supported one another and invited contributions from each other.

3pts – All three problems are written out and solved correctly.

2pts – A separate summary of what was learned in class that day is provided.

HippoCampus and NROC are trademarks of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. Copyright Tue Mar 20 04:17:20 UTC 2018 Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. Click here for our
Terms of Use
and our
Privacy Policy.

An error has occurred while processing your request. In order to help us improve this site, please describe what you were doing when the error occurred and the error will be reported to our technical staff. Please provide all the details you can including specific subjects, courses and topics that you were working with.

Your email (optional):

What you were doing:

HippoCampus.org is a free, core academic web site that delivers rich multimedia content--videos, animations, and simulations--on general education subjects to middle-school and high-school teachers and college professors, and their students, free of charge. Teachers project HippoCampus content during classroom learning and assign it for computer labs and homework. Students use the site in the evenings for study and exam prep. Users do not need to register or log in to use the site.

As an open resource for personalized learning, HippoCampus.org was designed as part of a worldwide effort to improve access to quality education for everyone. HippoCampus is powered by The NROC Project, a non-profit, member-driven project focused on new models of digital content development, distribution, and use. NROC makes editorial and digital engineering investments in the content to prepare it for distribution by HippoCampus.

Sponsors

User Requirements

HippoCampus contains multimedia instructional content that is best viewed over a high-speed Internet connection such as DSL or Cable Modem. Some HippoCampus content uses Adobe Flash. We recommend that you have Adobe Flash Player 10.x or higher installed on your system.

While we understand that you may need assistance with your homework, we cannot provide the answers to your problems or individual assistance. We hope you can use our website as a tool to help you learn the subject matter so that you can find the answers.

Teaching

More than half the use of HippoCampus occurs during classroom hours, when teachers go online to project topic lectures and show simulations launched from the HippoCampus site. Teachers can use the site as is, or can create custom playlists of topics in their custom HippoCampus page by creating a free user account. Just click the Log In link in the top-right corner of any HippoCampus page to get started. Further information can be found in the HippoCampus User's Guide.

HippoCampus is not a credit-granting organization, and does not monitor, grade, or give transcripts to anyone using the site. However, many home schooling families have used HippoCampus content to supplement or guide their home curriculum, and we welcome them as users.HippoCampus is made possible by the members of The NROC Project, and many NROC members offer credit for courses that contain HippoCampus content.

Yes, although homeschoolers should realize that the content presented is not a complete course. The content is intended to have an instructor to provide supplemental assignments and instruction. Since there is no teacher available through HippoCampus, the parent must take the role of instructor.

We have done research to identify some very good wet lab resources for virtual schools that could also be used successfully by homeschoolers. Here are a few of the options:Smart Science, https://www.smartsciencelearning.com/Smart Science® virtual labs are a complete science learning system with online assessments and reports, delivery of all course activities and student and curriculum tracking for current and prior terms. In 2007 the College Board approved AP science courses that incorporate Smart Science® AP labs as their lab components. Full sets of labs (20-30 labs per course) are offered for a fee.Hands-On Labs, https://holscience.com/The science lab kits and products offered by Hands-On Labs, Inc. were specifically designed and selected by practicing distance educators to serve the "At Home" science study markets. These kits are used with web courses, telecommunication courses, home-schooling programs, and all other forms of independent study.

Students are not required to log in to HippoCampus.org, so there is no way to track student use from the public site. However, institutions that are members of the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC) have access to HippoCampus content through their school's learning management system, which can track use, assignments, and grades.

No. Our Terms of Use specify that HippoCampus is provided by the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education for personal enrichment and individual instructor use only. The unlicensed use of this content by educational organizations or commercial vendors is prohibited.

Technical

Unfortunately, there is no way to download the video from our website. As an individual user, however, you may create a custom HippoCampus page and then link to an individual topic. After you have created your custom page, there will be buttons in the upper right corner that allow you to view the text version (when available), bookmark, or link to the topic.

Yes, in multiple ways. First, there is a "maximize" button beneath the bottom left corner of the Media Window which will widen the screen. There is also a "hide column" button beneath the first column of content in the Browse Topics tab. These can be used simultaneously or independently. For some content, such as that from Khan Academy, a small button in the lower right corner of the media control bar allows the content to be shown full screen. For other content, such as Algebra I--An Open Course, right-clicking the mouse over the video content will open a menu that offers Full Screen as an option.

Much, but not all, of the content at HippoCampus is closed captioned.Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. The educational resources provided at HippoCampus.org were not procured by, and are not made available through, a Federal agency, so the law is not applicable to the content at this website.

Due to the complexity of modifying the multimedia content, we cannot always correct errors within the video presentations. There is an Errata icon that appears with any topics in which a known error has been identified. We encourage our users to report any errors they discover so that we can notify everyone of the problem.There is also an errata sheet available for some courses if you select "Launch a Full Course."

Use the "Comments and Questions" feature in the Media Window control bar. The icon looks like a small speech bubble, and allows you to send in a description of the error directly from the relevant piece of media. Or you can send an email to Help@HippoCampus.org.

Please describe the issue as precisely as possible.If you provide your email address, we will inform you about the correction process, or ask any follow-up question necessary to clarify the report.

HippoCampus and Advanced Placement (AP)*

We know a lot of homeschoolers use HippoCampus. We are often asked if homeschoolers can study the content at HippoCampus and then just take and pass the AP exam.HippoCampus courses were designed to address the AP College Board criteria. However, as with any teaching resource, they should not be considered a singular solution, but can be used as a good foundation for an AP teaching curriculum. The courses at HippoCampus have not currently been mapped to the CLEP and DANTE tests.If you wish to receive college credit for taking an AP course, most colleges will require that the course have been approved by the College Board. Schools wishing to give their students AP credit must go through the AP audit process. The same is true for homeschoolers. The AP Course Ledger section below gives more information about the audit process.AP Course LedgerThe AP Course Ledger is a comprehensive and public registry of all courses authorized to use the AP label on student transcripts. The Ledger is an annual and culminating product of the AP Course Audit, a process by which college faculty confirm that courses submitted by AP teachers and schools provide students with the essential elements of a college level experience. As an exclusively Web-based registry, the Ledger is published annually in November and updated weekly throughout the academic year to reflect newly authorized courses.Here is a link to AP Audit information, (and you can find other links on this page to various other resources):

-- use the "AP" designation on students' transcripts-- be listed in the ledger of authorized AP courses provided each fall to college and university admissions offices and the public.

Schools that simply offer the AP Exam as an opportunity for their students to earn college credit, without actually labeling the school's courses "AP" on students' transcripts, do not need to participate in the AP Course Audit, and can continue offering AP Exams to their students.

Our AP content is a good resource to help students prepare for AP exams. However, while we provide content resources, we do not have instructors who teach the courses. In order to be authorized by the College Board and put in the AP Course Ledger, an instructor must submit a syllabus for the course. While we do not have instructors who teach our courses, we do have NROC member schools that teach the courses for credit and they have been approved through the AP College Board.

*AP, Advanced Placement and Advanced Placement Program are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this content.

Contact

Academic Institutions

HippoCampus is sustained by academic institutions that are members of The NROC Project. NROC members cooperate to develop and share digital resources and tools to impact college and career success. For more information about joining our efforts, please email membership@nroc.org.

Textbook Publishers

Correlation to HippoCampus is a powerful competitive differentiator for your textbook. To have your book indexed and listed at HippoCampus, please contact Gary Lopez, Executive Director, 831-642-9459, glopez@montereyinstitute.org.

Advertisers

HippoCampus.org is an Open Educational Resource that delivers high-quality academic content in middle-school and high-school classrooms during the day, and offers students study and homework resources in the evenings. We welcome advertisers whose message is consistent with our educational mission and our non-profit, foundation-funded status. For details, visit the Student Messaging System page.

Explore NROC Project Membership for Institutional Use

The same great content available for free individual use at HippoCampus.org is also available for institutional use through membership in The NROC Project. Membership fees sustain the operation of this non-profit endeavor to make quality educational content freely available to individual learners worldwide.

If you are interested in learning more about institutional use of the NROC Library within your school, district, or state, please complete the contact us form at www.nroc.org.

If you have forgotten your password, enter your username or email address to have your password sent to you.

If you want to visit someone else's myHippo page, you can look them up here:

Login ID:

To make media Playlists or your own custom HippoCampus site, you will need to create an account. Choose a Login ID and Password. Make sure you record your Login ID and Password in a safe place; you will need to use them to edit your custom page.

Login ID:

Password:

Password (again):

To complete the registration process, please provide the following information. All fields are required.

Choose a Login ID that is easy for you to remember. You will need to use it to access your custom page. You will also need to provide your Login ID to anyone with whom you would like to share your custom page with, like your students. You will not want to share your Password with anyone else since you will use your Password to edit the contents of your custom page.

The other information you need to provide will help us determine how HippoCampus is being used so we can improve the features and services offered at this site. Your email address will only be used to contact you if we need to provide you with information about your account. We will not share your email address with any other organization.

Explore NROC Project Membership for Institutional Use

The same great content available for free individual use at HippoCampus.org is also available for institutional use through membership in The NROC Project. Membership fees sustain the operation of this non-profit endeavor to make quality educational content freely available to individual learners worldwide.

If you are interested in learning more about institutional use of the NROC Library within your school, district, or state, please complete the contact us form at www.nroc.org.